MechWarrior 4: Black Knight

It's an expansion that lives by, and up to, the simple adage of more is better.

Whether you prefer playing by joystick with a myriad of pedals, rudders and throttles, or playing with a mouse and keyboard combo, dastardly darting in and out of foes precisely taking out their limbs and cockpits, MechWarrior 4: Vengeance, has for the past year offered up gamers the world over an excellent opportunity to strap themselves into a gargantuan bipedal machine of war. Those who were smart enough to grab themselves a copy all cried out two things. One: "This game rips!" And two: "I want more!" Whether or not you've yet to know the joys of MechWarrior Vengeance you'll be getting more....

First off, I like me some MechWarrior 4; but then, I've always been a fan of the series (of PC games anyway). I remember my first play with MechWarrior 2. I was drawn in and engulfed by an epic conflict that saw honor and cast crazed clans invading the established Inner Sphere. The fiction, the intrigue, the epic scope of the universe, and more importantly the 3D giant robots walking around blowing the crap out of any and all things in an incredibly deep set of gameplay mechanics were all just too much to pass up at the time.

MechWarrior 4 was no different. My life as was, slowed to a crawl as only essentials such as eating and bathroom breaks paused my quest for vengeance and liberation against and from a tyrannical House Steiner. Ian Dresari, I fought to avenge the deaths of my family, and rid my troubled world, Kentares IV, of the Steiner stranglehold. Even now, the game still remains installed on my home computer acting as the ever-present test of performance as well as the much-needed spout of respite from everyday life. It's a good thing it's still there, as the expansion, Black Knight, has stomped through my doors, and once again, straight into my heart.

For those who don't know, MechWarrior 4 marries action and simulation into a beautiful child that's chalked full of mech stomping fun. In control of any one of many 50 to 100 ton bipedal mechanisms of war, the game used easy to grasp, hard to master gameplay fundamentals to immerse players into a war between honorable houses and vicious tyrants. To the delight of everyone, all this took place within a gorgeously realized colorful environments that still easily contends with the best today has to offer.

Black Knight is the partial successor to its father, and adds everything an expansion should. That is, more, more, more. And even though it runs short on some of the production value that was put into the original, it has enough additions to draw fans of the franchise in once again, and maybe even lure those still, for some incomprehensible reason, unwilling to give this latest batch of superb robot stomping action a try.

Sometime after the events of MechWarrior 4, it seems some dispute has arisen concerning the legitimacy of Ian Dresari's claim to rule. Some believe his now dead sister was the rightful heir. Suffice to say tensions are rising. You enter the scene as a MechWarrior of the house Davion dishonorably discharged for failing to follow orders (you tried to save a comrade when ordered to retreat -- ooh, you bastard, you). Stripped of your rank and privilege, you now ally yourself with the Black Knight Legion of mercenaries. Begin MechWarrior 4: Black Knight.

This new storyline is carried out through an assortment of single player missions that span a number of environments across varying mission types. There's easily enough here to make the campaign alone a worthwhile prospect to fans, but it lacks some of the polish and production value put into the original MechWarrior 4 (CG, video briefings, etc.). I also take some offense to the instruction manual delivered backstory, as the rich fiction that powers the series cries for drastically more attention. Why are the days of MechWarrior 2's lengthy rolls of superfluous text gone? Why? Even if you don't read them, they're immeasurably cool.

But, as we all know, the play is where it's at... In this respect, MechWarrior 4 is back with a vengeance (no pun intended). Your favorite mechs, weapons, and tactics all make a return showing, only now thrown into new environments with new objectives and new mechs to accomplish them. The expansion's locales include volcanic levels, mineral rich landscapes, and my personal favorite, the ruins. These ruins are essentially an urban environment, post some serious ass kicking. Broken hulls of buildings and a generally smoggy or rainy climate really bring out an immense feeling of mood and atmosphere. The fact that the planet is in a whole lot of turmoil is really driven home here. If ever there was a place better suited for gigantic robot combat, I've yet to see it.

The new mechs boxed with Black Knight include the game's namesake, the Black Knight (Heavy), as well as the Ryoken (Medium), Sunder (assault), Uller (light) and Wolfhound (light). The Black Knight is perhaps the most recognizable of the lot as it's the one prominently displaying its massive metal shield mounted to its right arm. I found really no purpose to this outside of a design standpoint. Being what it is, the mech inherently lacks a lot of mobility, so it's virtually impossible to repeatedly position yourself in a way as to make the armor shield applicable in-game, without losing your life in the process.

Of the others, I prefer the Uller most. Extremely fast, with a mosquito type load out (one bite itches, a hundred kills), the Uller is an excellent addition to the set of tactics that fall under the motto of technique, speed, agility, and finesse before might. Preferring the mouse keyboard combination for precise aiming and control, I found myself effortlessly navigating between the shots of more hulking mechs, repeatedly landing blow after blow to their knees, only to watch them crumble, or systematically picking off their weapon hardpoints only to watch their fat butts flee in disgrace. It's also especially easy in multiplayer to coax more novice pilots into laying out far too much ammunition and even tagging their compatriots in an unwelcome crossfire.

And this is truly the joy of MechWarrior -- the strategy developed through personal preference and play. Whether your choose to take on your opponents from a distance, or up close and personal with half a dozen heavy ER lasers, many, many factors come into play and must be pondered over by masters wishing to get the most out of their experience. Deciding upon a proper loadout and initial strategy is a critical component to victory.

This creates a problem in the single-player campaign. Some missions practically necessitate a specific, or at least more well-rounded loadout to be properly accomplished. For instance, in the first set of missions there will come one that amounts to a search and destroy patrol. After completing the bulk of it you'll come across a base where a whole bunch of cargo pods suddenly shoot toward the skies. The objective is to take them out before they escape. Having preloaded my mechs with a combination of short range ballistics, projectiles, and reload dependent PPCs catering my personal style of play, I found myself quickly staring down the ugly face of the trial and error monster. Picking off fast moving pods shooting skyward with a weapon that takes twelve minutes to reload is not the best of ideas.

Which leads me to another point. This game is of the hard variety. I fancied myself a locked and loaded MechWarrior capable of playing poker with the best of them, so I naturally cranked the difficulty to appease my cockiness and upon victory, inflate my ego further. Oh, how terribly wrong was I. I stumbled around like a Mad Cat with one leg broke and the other gone on only the first set of missions. Self-esteem = zilcho. Slide the difficulty down a bit and it's still plenty challenging, which I suppose is to be expected, as this is an expansion on the original and should thus pick up where the previous left off.

These sometimes aggravatingly hard missions have multiple objectives and multiple outcomes. If you're ordered to take out a target and flee, the best approach would be to take out the target and flee. Perfections wanting to litter the landscape with every carcass of every mech in sight need not apply. The degree of success in these missions will also at times be taken into account as to determine the course of the next set of available missions.

The final addition to the single-player campaign comes in the form of an expanded Mechlab, more specifically, its black market component. Instead of relying on what was salvaged from the battle prior, you can now use what you've acquired as barter for other more rarer items. Not everything is open to you and whatever you want will have a cost attached to it, but a lot more is made accessible and the feeling of being a mercenary is discernibly furthered.

In summation of the game's single-player mode, I leave those familiar with a simple analogy MechWarrior 2 Mercenaries was to MechWarrior 2, as Black Knight is to MechWarrior 4. There aren't as many graphical enhancements made, but Black Knight adds another perspective on the series, and offers more the way of customizability and depth.

But single play is not where the yellow brick road ends. The expansion comes prepped with a new selection of multiplayer modes designed to enhance and expand upon the already robust components of the original. The new modes include: Absolute Attrition, which actually takes into account the type of Mech used when determining scoring (no more trouncing the smaller mechs with those hefty assaults; Strongholds, which pits two teams against one another in bouts to destroy the other's key buildings; Siege Assault, which is much like Strongholds, but only one side has a base; Goliaths, which pits light mechs against assault; and, Inner Sphere vs. Clan that limits the usage of technology to either side and stays true to the fiction. The addition of these modes add substantially to the game, and just offer more for us to play. I especially like the premise of the Siege mode. Developing a precise and refined blueprint of attack with your team and then laying it into action, storming your opposition's base, is really an exciting endeavor.

If only more polish and more extensive usage of secondary fiction were added to the single-player campaign (the solid briefings of MW3 and all those long streams of text from MW2) we would have been left with an astounding expansion pack, but as it is, I guess we'll just have to settle for a really damn good one. MechWarrior Vengeance is an awesome game as is, and Black Knight only makes it that much better. Buy it if you've got the original, and buy them both if you don't, you won't be disappointed. They accommodate all types of players and come highly Ivan recommended.